original and amazingly intact (1847-1855) dark emerald green iron pontiled "silver medal" soda water bottle with applied tapered lip manufactured by the dyottville glassworks, philadelphia, pa for eugene roussel. the green glass is remarkably clean and clear of haze; it features allover seeding and whittling centrally in the body. the base has a high domed kickup with heavy iron residue. worn embossement reads “dyottville glassworks, philad. / this bottle is never sold” arching around a circular plate with embossing inside, “silver medal / 1847 / awarded”. deeply embossed on the posterior is "roussel's / mineral water / manufactured / in silver". thomas dyott immigrated to philadelphia from england in the late 18th or early 19th century. in the 1820's dyott bought up the kensington glass works located along the gunners run creek, so he could produce bottles for his own ventures along with his competitors needs. in the 1830's dyott tempered the bottles for the bootblack and patent medicines he sold around the country. among his medicinal elixirs were vegetable nervous cordial, infallible toothache drops and stomatic bitters. through agents in different parts of the country and newspaper ads dyott became a nationally recognized medical figure. the 300 or so people employed by the glass works also lived, farmed, worshiped and attended school within the company complex that self-proclaimed dr. dyott assembled in hopes of creating his own self-sufficient society. half of the workers were apprentices, some as young as 8 years old. dyott initiated a new system of moral and mental labor. he would provide housing, health care, education, recreation, religion and rules. at the glass works height it would produce 8000 to 10,000 pounds of glass daily. the company would make common bottles along with embossed images of the american flag, cornucopia along with portraits of presidents washington, franklin and swedish singer jenny lind and even portraits of dyott. dyott wasn’t the first to make glass at the philadelphia factory, and only ran the glass works for about 10 years of the 150-plus years that glass was manufactured in this location. he started building his community, even starting his own bank- which printed money with his picture on it. in the panic of 1837, many banks went under, including his own. dyottville glass closed as dyott was convicted of fraud, being unable to pay back his creditors. he spent 15 months in prison. his former factory was idle for several years but reopened in 1842 when philadelphia bottler eugene roussel had henry seybert reopen the factory to produce bottles for his quickly growing mineral water business. eugene roussel was an important manufacturer of both perfumes and soda water. roussel came to philadelphia in 1838 and immediately set up a perfumery where he made fancy soaps and toiletries, and additionally had a mineral water fountain. roussel's lab director, xavier bazin, eventually assumed proprietorship of the business in 1849. early on, between 1840-1844 there was an explosion of bottlers, caused largely by the craze for eugene roussel’s bottled soda and mineral waters; in 1838 or 1839 roussel bottled the first syruped soda water, a lemon flavor. he innovated in the taste and quality of bottled waters using his training in a parisian perfumery and lab to invent recipes that were more palatable, with none of the medicinal or bland qualities soda water of the time commonly had. the craze he created was so great that public demand for bottles triggered the reopening of the closed dyottville factories in 1842. roussel is credited as being the first to flavor his waters with fruit juices, or the first to bottle flavored soda water; neither is technically correct, though he is the first to have made a success of it and thus garners credit as the “father of the American bottled soda water industry.”